Ryan K. writes:

Hi, I’m a freshman in [traditional four-year] college and I’ve been rethinking my major. I want to go into the audio recording industry. What type of schooling do you suggest? Are
there any specific schools that have an exceptional program that you recommend?
Are there any other things you’d like to suggest about this career path? Thanks.

Thanks for writing in Ryan.  This is a tough question to answer, but hopefully I can point you in the right direction.  (Upfront disclaimer – This is just my experience and opinion, so please don’t go tell you’re parent’s you’re dropping out of school because of something I said.)

Personally I’ve got a B.A. in Linguistics from UC Berkeley, and a B.A.S. in Sound Arts from Expression Digital Arts College.  So I went through both traditional college and a 2.5 year recording program, and really found value in both.  

Lots of people do what they love and lots do what they think will get make them a decent living.  Now that I’m actually working and fighting for jobs… I’d have to say “Either do what you LOVE, or make sure you’re going to get paid a TON of money.”  Heh.  Well, it’s not really that simple, so lets consider a few things:

First, the good news:

The music industry is in a state of complete flux right now.  Businesses models, contracts, and venues are changing.  Career options and paths are changing.  There’s a big opening in the industry for someone to innovate and come up with a new way for the music industry to continue to prosper.  

There’s lots of career paths in recording and music production.  There are audio engineers, composers, musicians, producers, business guys, freelancers, and on and on and on. Even those categories have been blasted to heck. Engineers produce, and producers engineer.  Musicians are their own production teams.  In certain genres like Hip Hop and Electronica its common for one person to play all those roles at once.  

There are also more and better schools out there than ever before.  They do a lot in the way of exposing you to gear and teaching you all the technical stuff you’d want to know. They offer people the chance to build networks of other like-minded people, and help you get a started in the world of recording.

Now some bad news:

Competition is ridiculous.  There’s a lot of people graduating from all these new schools, and not enough jobs for them all.  The economy is also hurting a bit right now, which makes job hunting a little tough.  

Also, you have to invest a lot into audio to make a career out of it.  You have to work a lot of crazy long hours, be willing to be paid very little for a long time, and devote a lot of your time and money to developing your skills and facilities.  

I’ve been playing music and recording it for almost ten years now and its a money/time sink.  I tend to get things like TV’s, Xboxes and other fancy duds a lot later than my friends because music purchases tend to come first.  It also puts a pretty big strain on a lot of relationships because while your friends are out Saturday night, you’re in the studio or at the show working.

So… what do i do?

I’m not trying to convince or discourage you from pursuing music production as a career.  I’m just suggesting you REALLY commit to it before dropping $20-60 thousand bucks on a recording program. 

I’ve heard a lot of established engineers say the same thing.  You have to love it, or you won’t make it.

Someone once told me – “Think about what you’re doing at 3 a.m.  If you’re working on music even though you have to go to school/work in 5 hours, then maybe this is the industry for you.”

If you…

- love music but lack a lot of technical know-how

- don’t have contacts, friends, or family who can get you into an intern/entry-level position in a recording studio

- have the motivation to educate yourself, hone your skills on your own, and constantly practice

- will die if you have to sit in your cubicle for one more day

- can pay the money or accept the debt that music school places on you

- are not willing to accept music production as a “side-job” or hobby

then you might want to consider recording schools.  

However there’s one important thing that this whole discussion misses. Real experience in recording is generally worth a lot more than a recording class.  Sure you get lots of technical chops, but you’ve got to get used to all the activities of recording.  Can you handle and direct a room full of drunk/high/hippie musicians?  Can you keep your data organized and backed up?Can you deal with pressure and various people mad at you for reasons completely unknown to you?  Can you stand recording the same line over and over and over and over….

There’s a lot to recording besides just setting up a mic and hitting record, so if you can get yourself in a position to work in a studio … I’d consider doing that instead of going to recording school.  Maybe even invest that tuition money into a startup facility.

Resources

So beyond what I think about this, try to learn more about the industry. Here’s some links that might help you get thinking.

Some Forum Threads:  (If you want to start networking with other audio guys, but don’t know where to start, most of us are on forums trolling for info)

A Lively Gearslutz Debate

JungleScene Thread about Recording Schools

Interning vs School

Articles, Magazines, etc.

A Great Article from TapeOp (Which you should subscribe to if you haven’t already… its FREE and honest)

 

Oh and if you can.  Take the tours.  I was unsure of how “legitimate” some of these schools were until I actually visited and check out facilities.  I still remember standing in a room with Expression’s SSL 900J desk.  That’s me setting up with that desk at school.  Honestly… after getting to walk around in a building full of studios, there was no way I wasn’t going to go there.  But, as with everything I suggest on this site… you have to go see for yourself.  

Best of luck Ryan, and feel free to shoot us an email anytime you need help.  (Ben also went to Ex’pression, which is actually where we met… awww). 

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